Deceased missing participants

[pixiebear]

We are terminating a defined benefit plan with many former employees. We used a locator service to find addresses for all of the former employees and have learned that several of the former employees are now deceased. What do we have to do to determine if they were married and to find the spouse since the plan has a QJSA payable to the spouse?

[Paul I]

A quick and easy first step is to Google the name of the participant and "obituary".  Obituaries often disclose names of spouses or former spouses, and surviving family members.  If you are lucky, the surviving spouse lives at the address of the former employee.  Otherwise, you can ask your locator service to search for the surviving spouse.

If the spouse passed away before the former employee and the plan identifies beneficiaries that are next in line, then you can have the service look for the surviving family members.

 

[MoJo]

14 hours ago, Paul I said:

A quick and easy first step is to Google the name of the participant and "obituary".  Obituaries often disclose names of spouses or former spouses, and surviving family members.  If you are lucky, the surviving spouse lives at the address of the former employee.  Otherwise, you can ask your locator service to search for the surviving spouse.

If the spouse passed away before the former employee and the plan identifies beneficiaries that are next in line, then you can have the service look for the surviving family members.

 

Absolutely the best approach.  We start with Legacy.com which is pretty helpful.  In a couple of cases, at the frustrated suggestion of a member of my team, we've called the coroner of the county where thy died and ask who claimed the body.  One actually said it wasn't their county - and inquired on our behalf to the neighboring counties (where we got the info we needed). They actually are very helpful! (I think they don't talk to the living very often).  If you can get a death certificate, it will usually indicate if they are married and spouse's name.